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Maine health insurance

Three insurers offer coverage on Maine's marketplace; new restrictions for short-term plans take effect in 2020.

Health insurance in Maine

Maine uses the federally run exchange at HealthCare.gov, although the state is considering switching to its own exchange.

Open enrollment for 2020 coverage in Maine has ended, although residents with qualifying events can still enroll. The next open enrollment period, for coverage effective in 2021, will being November 1, 2020.

Short-term health plans can be sold in Maine with initial plan terms up to 12 months, but a new rule takes effect in 2020 that prohibits short-term plans from extending past December 31 of the year in which they’re issued.

Maine’s health insurance marketplace

Could Maine be doing more to preserve the Affordable Care Act’s provisions? Compare its efforts to other state-level actions.

Maine uses the federally run health insurance exchange, so residents in the state enroll via HealthCare.gov. But Maine is considering the possibility of transitioning to a state-run exchange in the future — initially while still using HealthCare.gov, but the state may eventually establish its own enrollment platform.

Open enrollment for 2020 health plans has ended, although residents with qualifying events can still enroll or make changes to their coverage for 2020. The next open enrollment window (for coverage effective in 2021) will begin November 1, 2020.
Anthem exited the exchange at the end of 2017, leaving just two insurers offering plans for 2018. But Anthem rejoined the exchange for 2019, so Maine is back to having three insurers offering plans in the exchange:

[But on the other hand, rates would likely have decreased for 2019 if not for the destabilizing actions of the federal government, including the elimination of the individual mandate penalty after the end of 2018, and the expansion of short-term and association health plans.]

2020: An average rate decrease and state outreach to encourage enrollment

For 2020, Maine regulators have approved an overall average rate decrease of about 1.6 percent, indicating ongoing market stability in the state. And in a departure from the LePage administration’s hands-off approach to health insurance outreach, the Mills administration actively worked to boost enrollment in Maine’s health insurance exchange during the open enrollment period for 2020 coverage. The state launched a new website (coverME.gov) and a public outreach campaign designed to spread awareness of the state’s expanded Medicaid program as well as the private health insurance options available to individuals and small businesses.

Medicaid expansion in Maine took effect in 2019

For the first five years that the ACA’s Medicaid expansion was available, Maine was the only state in the northeast to reject federal funding for Medicaid expansion. But that changed in 2019, when Governor Janet Mills took office.

Maine voters approved Medicaid expansion with a ballot initiative in 2017, but then-Governor Paul LePage blocked expansion throughout 2018. Mills, who had been serving as Maine’s Attorney General, had promised to make Medicaid expansion one of her first priorities upon taking office, and she signed an executive order to expand coverage on her first day in office.

As of December 2019, there were 44,441 people enrolled in expanded Medicaid in Maine. That was about 17 percent of the state’s total Medicaid/CHIP enrollment, which stood at 256,602 people as of September 2019.

Short-term health insurance in Maine: New restrictions take effect in 2020

But Maine is tightening its short-term plan regulations under a new law that takes effect in January 2020. At that point, short-term plans will not be allowed to extend past December 31 of the year in which they’re issued, so the maximum duration will vary depending on the date that a plan is purchased. The new law includes additional restrictions, such as banning the sale of short-term plans during the open enrollment period for ACA-compliant plans (November 1 – December 15) if they’re scheduled to take effect in the new year.

Maine and the Affordable Care Act

When Congress voted on the Affordable Care Act in 2010, Maine’s senators voted against the measures, while its two representatives voted for it. Sen. Olympia Snowe retired in 2013, and Sen. Angus King now represents Maine. King is generally supportive of the Affordable Care Act.

Sen. Susan Collins and Rep. Chellie Pingree remain in office. Rep. Michael Michaud, a Democrat, left office and was succeeded by Rep. Bruce Poliquin, a Republican, in 2015. Poliquin served as a Maine Representative until 2019, when Democrat Jared Golden took his seat after defeating him in the 2018 election. Golden wants to strengthen and build on the ACA, while Poliquin wanted to repeal the ACA and replace it with a “free market” solution.

In both 2011 and 2012, the Maine legislature considered bills to establish a state-run health insurance marketplace. However, the bills were not passed. Then-Gov. Paul LePage, a Republican, announced in late 2012 that Maine would default to the federally facilitated exchange.

LePage was firmly opposed to the ACA. In addition to opposing a state-run marketplace, he repeatedly vetoed legislation to expand Medicaid, blocking it for the entire time he was in office. But residents of Maine approved a 2017 ballot measure to expand Medicaid, and although LePage blocked it throughout 2018, that was his last year in office and his successor, Governor Mills, implemented the will of the voters as soon as she took office.

Is Obamacare affecting the uninsured rate in Maine?

Following the national trend, the uninsured rate in Maine dropped after the ACA’s individual mandate went into effect. According to U.S. Census data, the uninsured rate was 11.2 percent in 2013 in Maine, and 8.0 percent in 2018. It has likely dropped lower in 2019, with the implementation of Medicaid expansion.

Maine’s CO-OP is one of just four still operational in the country

The Consumer Operated and Oriented Plan (CO-OP) Program was included in the Affordable Care Act to increase competition and consumer choice. Twenty-four CO-OPs, including Maine Community Health Options, received loans totaling $2.09 billion as of January 2014. Maine Community Health Options received about $64 million.

Since then, all but four Obamacare CO-OPs have closed. Maine’s CO-OP (Community Health Options) is one of the four that have remained operational. Community Health Options briefly offered plans in New Hampshire as well, but has since opted to focus solely on Maine.

Medicare in the state of Maine

Maine Medicare enrollment reached 341,016 by October 2019, which is more than 25 percent of the state’s total population. Nationwide, less than 19 percent of the population is enrolled in Medicare, but Maine has the highest average age in the country, so it’s not surprising that a larger percentage of the state’s population is enrolled in Medicare.

Roughly 82 percent of Maine’s Medicare population is eligible based on age alone and 18 percent qualify as the result of a disability. The federal government spent about $8,624 per Maine enrollee (for those enrolled in Original Medicare) in 2017, which was lower than the national average of $9,761 per enrollee.